Always a romantic, now left hollow.
When I was younger, I dreamed of love that would never fade
A love untouched by time, by pain, by failure.
No one warned me that love is brittle,
That it crumbles under the weight of expectations,
That the ones you give your heart to
Can just as easily walk away.

I was never told that love would demand pieces of me,
That I would lose myself trying to be enough-
Changing my hair, my voice, my skin,
Tearing apart the person I was,
Just to fit inside someone else’s world.
And when they left, they took those pieces with them,
Leaving nothing but echoes
Of who I used to be.